Determinate or Indeterminate?

Mamachibi 4/21/2012, 8:51 am

I think my garden helpers mislabeled some of my tomatoes because two plants both labeled "Amish Paste Tomato" look totally different (color of leaf, gloss of leaf, etc.)

I don't care so much about the variety per se, but is there a way to tell if a tomato plant is determinate or indeterminate by looking at it? They are treated so differently with regard to removing suckers and staking and I don't want to lose a whole plant's productivity to misidentification.

Too Tall Tomatoes 4/21/2012, 9:26 am

Mamachibi wrote:I think my garden helpers mislabeled some of my tomatoes because two plants both labeled "Amish Paste Tomato" look totally different (color of leaf, gloss of leaf, etc.)

I don't care so much about the variety per se, but is there a way to tell if a tomato plant is determinate or indeterminate by looking at it? They are treated so differently with regard to removing suckers and staking and I don't want to lose a whole plant's productivity to misidentification.

I never heard of identifying a determinate or indeterminate just by looking at them at this stage of development. Once they mature, identification is easy.
If I were you, treat them both as determinate and see what happens. Soon you'll see the indeterminate start branching out like crazy and that will make identification easier What a Face

JennAndCompany 5/8/2012, 9:29 pm

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:If I were you, treat them both as determinate and see what happens. Soon you'll see the indeterminate start branching out like crazy and that will make identification easier

I adopted a volunteer tomato plant during the weed-pulling party at the community gardens a few weeks ago. Until I can find out what type of tomato plant this is (based on what was planted in that area last year), I will treat my volunteer (named Tom) as a determinate.

Thanks Too Tall for the advice!

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